The snow peas are in full production right now. Each day I can go out and pick, coming back with more than we can eat in a week. It's time to start putting snow peas in the freezer!
Most vegetables being frozen must be blanched. This stops the enzyme activity that causes vegetables to decay. Freezing doesn't stop this process and if you don't blanch, you could get off flavours, colours or texture. Luckily it's a really easy process and the basket of snow peas I had ready didn't even take half an hour from start to finish.
A big pot of water was boiling on the stove. The snow peas had already been topped and tailed. Ready to go!
Since I want to keep the water boiling, I only do a few handfuls at a time and just keep them in the boiling water until they turn bright green - it only takes a minute or two for snow peas.
Then I scoop them out into a colander under running cold water until they are no longer hot. This stops the cooking process.
Once drained, I put meal-sized portions in zip lock snack bags. The bags are put on a tray in a single layer and frozen. Tomorrow I'll put the bags in one big zip lock bag - or vacuum seal them in a big bag. Today's production provided 14 little baggies of delicious snow peas which I can steam for a minute or two for dinner, or add at the last minute to a soup or stir fry. It's a great feeling when you see the freezer starting to fill up with homemade produce!
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